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Michael Ayrton BIOGRAPHY
1921 London, England - 1975. Known for: Sculpture-abstract figure, painting.
Ayrton was a visual artist working in a variety of media, including wax and found objects such as bones and wood. He did theatrical design, film, and book illustrations, in addition to paintings and... Read full biography
Ayrton was a visual artist working in a variety of media, including wax and found objects such as bones and wood. He did theatrical design, film, and book illustrations, in addition to paintings and sculpture. He was also a gifted critic and writer. He was associated, as designer, illustrator or... Read full biography
Ayrton was a visual artist working in a variety of media, including wax and found objects such as bones and wood. He did theatrical design, film, and book illustrations, in addition to paintings and sculpture. He was also a gifted critic and writer. He was associated, as designer, illustrator or critic (and as friend) with many writers and visual artists of the period, including Dylan Thomas, Walter Sickert, Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis, C.P. Snow, Henry Moore, Eliot and others. Born on February... Read full biography
Ayrton was a visual artist working in a variety of media, including wax and found objects such as bones and wood. He did theatrical design, film, and book illustrations, in addition to paintings and sculpture. He was also a gifted critic and writer. He was associated, as designer, illustrator or critic (and as friend) with many writers and visual artists of the period, including Dylan Thomas, Walter Sickert, Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis, C.P. Snow, Henry Moore, Eliot and others. Born on February 20, 1921, in London, he died November 17, 1975. His father was Gerald Gould, writer/critic, and his mother Barbara Ayrton, Labour politician. In his earliest years as artist Ayrton studied at Heatherley's School of Art, then at St John's Wood School.... Read full biography
Ayrton was a visual artist working in a variety of media, including wax and found objects such as bones and wood. He did theatrical design, film, and book illustrations, in addition to paintings and sculpture. He was also a gifted critic and writer. He was associated, as designer, illustrator or critic (and as friend) with many writers and visual artists of the period, including Dylan Thomas, Walter Sickert, Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis, C.P. Snow, Henry Moore, Eliot and others. Born on February 20, 1921, in London, he died November 17, 1975. His father was Gerald Gould, writer/critic, and his mother Barbara Ayrton, Labour politician. In his earliest years as artist Ayrton studied at Heatherley's School of Art, then at St John's Wood School. In the introduction to Ayrton's book Golden Sections, Wyndham Lewis described Ayrton as an a... Read full biography
Artist Biography
Biography page for Michael Ayrton ((1921 - 1975)), known for Sculpture-abstract figure, painting. Showing 1 biographical entries and 0 sample artworks.
Michael Ayrton - Artist Info
About Michael Ayrton
Biography from the Archives of askART
Ayrton was a visual artist working in a variety of media, including wax and found objects such as bones and wood. He did theatrical design, film, and book illustrations, in addition to paintings and sculpture. He was also a gifted critic and writer. He was associated, as designer, illustrator or critic (and as friend) with many writers and visual artists of the period, including Dylan Thomas, Walter Sickert, Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis, C.P. Snow, Henry Moore, Eliot and others.
Born on February 20, 1921, in London, he died November 17, 1975. His father was Gerald Gould, writer/critic, and his mother Barbara Ayrton, Labour politician.
In his earliest years as artist Ayrton studied at Heatherley's School of Art, then at St John's Wood School.
In the introduction to Ayrton's book Golden Sections, Wyndham Lewis described Ayrton as an artist of diverse talents, and pointed out that this ironically provided amunition for his detractors, who could and did claim that he was "a good critic but a bad artist" or "a good artist but a bad critic" according to their mood of the day.
In his prose-poem work The Testament of Daedalus, Ayrton wrote in the postscript:
The artist, 'the maker of things', seeks to represent some part of what he thinks man is, and was, in order to discover himself in the process: or so I believe. (Testament of Daedalus, p. 70)
Ayrton wrote many notes and articles on a broad variety of subjects; the list below is only some of his main works, in book form:
Ayrton, Michael. British Drawings. London: Collins, 1946.
Ayrton, Michael. Drawings and Sculpture. With foreword by C.P. Snow & 139 ills.London: Corey, Adams & Mackay, 1962.
Ayrton, Michael. Fabrications. London: Secker & Warburg, 1972/New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1973.
Ayrton, Michael. Golden Sections. London: Methuen, 1957.
Ayrton, Michael. Paintings by Michael Ayrton. Introduction by James Layer.London: The Grey Walls Press, 1948.
Ayrton, Michael. The Rudiments of Paradise. London: Secker & Warburg, 1971.
Ayrton, Michael. The Testament of Daedalus. London: Methuen, 1962.
Ayrton, Michael. Tittivulus. London: Max Reinhardt, 1953.
Compiled and submitted by Jim Salt